The AN-2 “"Annushka" (NATO designation “Colt”) bi-plane is brutish, rugged airplane – a throwback from a very earlier age. Central to this appearance is the large Shvetsov Ash-62 9 cylinder radial engine (a development from the Wright R-1820 Cyclone) at the end of a short nose.. Overall, Hobby Boss captures the lines of the “Colt”, except the Shvetsov ASh-62 engine, which as molded looks like an anemic Clerget from WWI. Even with the close cowl and the large four bladed prop the engine does not look right. Thankfully Quickboost now offers a replacement engine.

The Quickboost Shvetsov ASh-62 engine looks just like the reference photos I have. Across the board the engine is in every way far superior to the kit’s engine. The cylinders are full sized and prototypically large in the compression chamber. The rocker arm cover detail is very nice and each cylinder is cover with crisp cooling fin detail. The crank case is more realistic in profile and has superb bolt and shaft detail. While push rods are not molded on or included, they are easy to add from styrene rod and the crank case and the cylinder heads are pre-drilled to accept them – a very nice touch which takes the guess work out of locating them. The engine also includes the oil sump, which most engines leave off! You will need to add a governor. The ignition harness is partially replicated with the distribution bundle at the base of the crankcase and the spark plugs molded in place (the spark plugs are another detail typically left off). You will need to add the wires from the base of the harness to the spark plugs, easily replicated with fine solder wire found in a well-stocked fly-fishing store or by using a PE harness.

One other thing that I don’t like about the Hobby Boss kit is that the cowling is molded in two halves without the leading edge as a separate piece. So the engine must be trapped between the two halves during assembly. Once the pour plug is removed the Quickboost engine is a drop in placement. The only trick is that unlike the kit engine which is keyed to center the engine, the Quickboost engine lacks that feature, so it would be easy for the engine to get off center. But that is a minor point.

This is a detail that really offers a significant improvement to the appearance of the kit where it matters upfront. With the additional details such as pushrods and ignition wires this will build up into a very busy looking engine. Thank you to Quickboost for the part and IPMS USA for the chance to review it.